Kampala, Uganda: The Office of the National Chairman (ONC) has launched a groundbreaking digital Vote Protection and Monitoring System dedicated to safeguard President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s votes in the 2026 General Elections, marking one of the boldest and most technologically advanced electoral interventions by the National Chairman’s office to date.
The system, developed by the ICT Department of State House under the supervision of Hajjat Hamida Kibirige, was unveiled Friday, November 14, 2025, by ONC Manager SPA/PA Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo in a high-energy ceremony attended by district coordinators, security officials, and senior presidential advisors.
The platform, exclusively interacted with by DailyExpress, blends high-level digital intelligence, real-time field reporting, and a nationwide database of 144,000 vote protectors, two in every village, recruited during last year’s ONC Vote Protection Exercise.
Namyalo: “Technology cannot lie; we are securing Museveni’s victory.”
The system, according to Hajat Namyalo, will monitor polling stations, track field coordinators, verify identities, detect anomalies, and counter electoral malpractice. She added that the IT platform, also available in the mobile app version, is fully designed to neutralize vote rigging, eliminate false intelligence, and ensure that Museveni’s votes are protected “to the maximum.”
“This system is going to help us monitor, guide, and give us knowledge on Museveni’s win, on protecting our gains, on protecting his vote,” Namyalo said. “We are moving from analogue to digital. Technology can’t lie. Human intelligence can be concocted, technology cannot.”
She said the digital tool will also provide accurate data on government programmes such as PDM, Emyooga, markets, roads and service delivery, helping ONC verify information and counter propaganda. “People need facts, not manufactured lies. Now we shall speak factual sense, digitally and verbally,” she said.
Namyalo emphasized that the system will prove the existence and deployment of the 144,000 vote protectors, countering reports claiming the structure was fictitious. “You cannot claim someone doesn’t exist when technology shows exactly where they are, when they were born, and the village they live in. Today, we have come to undo lies and display a formatted system ready for action,” she said.
She noted that mobilising crowds is easy, but converting rallies into actual votes requires structure, alertness and coordination, the core reason the vote protection system was designed.
On working with other NRM units, Hajjat emphasized her role in unifying government structures, noting that the new system is intentionally engineered to tighten coordination across all state organs.
“This system strengthens our cooperation as government,” she said. “It integrates data from ministries, agencies, State House departments and the NRM Secretariat because we must work as one machinery. My duty is to ensure cohesion so that government services flow seamlessly to the Wanainchi.”
“On 15th January, don’t go for lunch, protect the vote.”
Speaking at the same function, Nakawa District Internal Security Officer (DISO), Lt. Moses Tashobya, who also represented the RCC of Nakawa, delivered a fiery warning to coordinators against absenteeism, laxity, and casual behaviour on polling day.
“If you leave your polling station to go for lunch, what do you think the enemy is doing in those minutes? On that day, even love calls can wait,” Tashobya warned, triggering murmurs of agreement.
He urged vote protectors to remain at polling stations without blinking: “Do not leave the station. Do not take appointments. Do not complain after losing votes you failed to protect. If you are not ready, hand your papers to Madam. Veterans are ready to serve.”
Lt Tashobya called for unity between ONC, RDCs, DISOs, CAOs, DPCs and NRM structures. “Our purpose is not to fight each other. It is to lure people to join our run. Be patient like Mzee. Accommodate challenges, coordinate. That’s how peace prevails,” he said.
Mafabi: “ONC remains Museveni’s vote protection unit.”
At the same function, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Duties and ONC attaché, David Kenneth Mafabi, delivered a powerful reassurance on behalf of President Museveni, reading a verbatim written message from the National Chairman in which he assigned Hajjat Namyalo full authority to oversee the protection of his votes and prevent the kind of electoral theft experienced in 2021.
Mr Mafabi dismissed circulating claims that ONC would not manage the 2026 vote protection exercise, describing them as “opportunistic lies fueled by political panic.”
“This message from the National Chairman is clear and direct. The ONC will spearhead the 2026 vote protection strategy, no one should mislead you,” Mafabi said, rallying coordinators to commit fully, describing the system as a “historic weapon against rigging.”
If you would like your article/opinion to be published on Uganda’s most authoritative news platform, send your submission on: [email protected]. You can also follow DailyExpress on WhatsApp and on Twitter (X) for realtime updates.
